The applicants herein have a history of designing vented containers, particularly nursing bottles, and have obtained significant commercial success in the marketing of these products. In particular, the essence of the invention is to give consideration to the provision of venting of such a container, so that when a liquid is consumed, from therein, it is free of aeration or bubbles, does not require sucking by the infant when drinking from the nursing bottle, and furthermore, contains significantly reduced parts that can be easily cleaned, during application and usage.
The concept of this improved current invention is to even further reduce the number of parts required to attain a venting of the bottle when there is consuming of its liquids, and particularly of a nursing bottle during usage, when used for feeding infants and small children.
Prior art containers, other than the applicants' prior inventions and patents, that hold and pour liquids have the disadvantage of usually leaking, introducing air into the liquid, not pouring on demand, not venting the container, and not providing a balanced pressure inside the container, so that withdrawal of the liquids is on demand from their containers. In addition, many of the prior art utilize either direct venting, which means that any fluids located within the vent tube will pour freely from the container, in which the vent structure is installed, only to create a mess for the infant if it is drinking from a nursing bottle, containing such early venting structures.
Frequently, in order to lessen leakage, many prior art vents require a particular orientation of the container, generally in an upward position, and such can be seen in the prior United States patent to Parker, U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,221, upon a vent means for bottles and jugs. If the vent therein is not oriented correctly, a significant amount of liquid is spilled from the vent to the outside of the container, and typically onto the user of the container, especially if it is an infant consuming a formula.
As stated, the applicants have successfully designed a venting system that alleviates the leakage problems as previously referred to, through the use of a double venting structure, as can be noted in their U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,071, upon a nursing bottle with an air venting structure. As can be seen therein, the double venting concept is attained through use of a vent insert, which is a downwardly extending vent tube, and then incorporates a reservoir with a reservoir tube, that fits over the vent tube, so that when the bottle is inverted, any fluid remaining within the reservoir tube fills into the shown reservoir, and above the bottom of the inverted vent tube, when the bottle is turned, to thereby prevent the leakage of any formula to the exterior, and at the same time, prevent the generation of any negative pressure within the inverted bottle, when the formula is being extracted and consumed. Similar type structure can be seen in the applicants prior related U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,796, again upon a nursing bottle with an air venting structure.
The applicants have obtained a variety of other patents upon various types of vented nursing bottles, as can be seen in their U.S. Pat. No. 8,113,365, showing a fully vented nursing bottle with single piece vent tube. Other related structures can be seen in their U.S. Pat. No. 7,828,165, in addition to Publication No. US 2005/0258124, upon a fully vented wide rimmed nursing bottle with contoured vent tube. Further related structures can be seen in the patent to the inventors herein, as noted in U.S. Pat. No. 7,828,165.
As stated, the concept of this current invention is to even further reduce the number of components that make up the venting system for a container, particularly a nursing bottle, through the integration of select related structures, as modified, to the venting system when installed within particularly a nursing bottle, or with any container.
There are other examples of prior art that show nursing bottles, even some with a form of venting structure, as can be seen in the United States patent to Perry, U.S. Pat. No. 2,061,477, which shows a form of vent structure. But, it is believed that leakage occurs when the bottle is inverted because its shown vent tube directly communicates with its lateral ports, in the region of the neck of the shown bottle.
The patent to Schwab, U.S. Pat. No. 2,156,313, shows a fairly complex form of dispensing and package device for fluids. This shows a pair of vent tubes, but it would appear when the device is inverted, whatever liquid may be contained within the shorter vent tube will be discharged, until the bottle is emptied. Another patent to Schwab, U.S. Pat. No. 2,239,275, shows a further self-contained liquid dispensing device. Apparently this device is designed for providing venting, through its complex venting structure, as can be noted, when the device is inverted, and liquid is dispensed from its tube, as can be seen.
The patent to Blackstone, U.S. Pat. No. 2,744,646, shows another form of bottle construction, that incorporates a vent tube. But, the vent tube empties directly to the outside, which means it will leak when the bottle is inverted for consumption of its contents.
The patent to Offman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,098, shows a fluid flow controller for a bottle. This device is apparently for use with a soda or other fluids bottle, and does have a reservoir in an effort to collect the vent tube fluids when the bottle is inverted, as shown. But, unless that bottle is oriented in a particular direction, it will leak its fluids from the vent tube, and its reservoir, when it is initially inverted.
The patent to Sheu, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,710, shows another nursing bottle, and its nipple design, where it simply has a vent tube that sticks partially down into the fluids. Obviously, when that bottle is inverted, and the tip of its vent tube is within the liquid, there will be substantial leakage.
The patent to McKendry, U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,086, shows a further vented and double walled baby bottle. Apparently this device includes a check valve, to try to prevent leakage from the bottle when inverted, as during usage. This prevents natural discharge of the fluid and is susceptible to breakage and leakage.
These are examples of what prior art are known, and which are designed for venting of a nursing and other bottles, but they are far more structurally complex of design, and obviously will have difficulty of cleaning, after usage, many designs will contaminate the fluid with air and will not naturally flow, whereas, the concept and design of the current invention is to simplify the structure and to provide a least number of parts, to make up a venting structure, particularly within a nursing bottle, that can be very easily cleaned after usage, and quick to reassemble, when prepared for reception of a formula, and used by the infant during feeding and consumption of its contents.
As is also well known, babies should drink from vented containers in order to physiologically simulate breast feeding. This prevents air ingestion and formation of a vacuum in the container, which allows feeding on demand, and minimizes the consequences of feeding against a vacuum, which can include increased ear infections, gas, colic, irritability, ear fluid accumulation, speech delays, vitamin degradation, as well as other known maladies. Currently, if vented, infant feeding containers utilize multiple components to vent the container, as referred previously in the prior art, or modify the feeding nipple to some extent. Some utilize feeding bags in the nursing bottle. These components are sold with the container and are expensive and difficult to clean. Many caregivers simply purchase ordinary unvented or undervented bottles due to the cost and increased time and inconvenience of cleaning the container and its multitude of parts, as shown in the prior art. The undervented bottles require formation of a vacuum in the container in order to draw the air into the container and to partially and temporarily release the vacuum that is generated therein. The unvented container requires formation of a very significant negative pressure by the sucking by infant in order to withdraw the liquid and formula, from the unvented container, which also causes contamination of the liquid with air. This can generate aeration within the formula, which can lead towards the development of colic in the infant. Such can also cause other impairments. The bag systems and check-valve systems also require the generation of a negative pressure formation by the infant to overcome that pressure formed in the container. As is well known in the medical literature, and by the moms, that the breast supplies a positive pressure to the milk being emitted. All of the current art feeding container are not physiologic or healthy for the infant, with the exception of the prior bottles of the current inventors, which were double vented. Frequently, cleaning is difficult to do and the parts are lost or damaged, which is very expensive and frustrating for the user. If the system uses check-valves, which are very common, these check-valve are very difficult to clean and frequently suffer from significant or complete failure from their fragile texture and nature. Of note, is that some of the prior art utilizes a venting port in the cap that is aligned with the vent extending typically several centimeters into the container. This obviously does not provide true venting and there is no positive pressure, and also suffers from air contamination of the liquid in the container, since negative pressure must first be initiated and used to draw the liquid from the container. Thus, all of the unhealthy and negative aspects of partial venting are noted with these prior art. Also, with this type of prior art, where a check-valve is used, with all of its negative attributes, the oral negative pressure must be generated in order to withdraw liquid from the container during its initial and continued usage.
In the prior art, there is no option to obtain a venting portion of the bottle, and to use the same with the standard bottles that were already purchased and possessed. Also, there is not any system that is both disposable and cleanable. This option is particularly useful for those users that wish to utilize a feeding system differently for different situations. An example of this is when a user wishes to clean and reuse the vent when at home, but desires to dispose of the vent when traveling and cleaning is difficult, and the current invention accommodates this. Currently, there just is not any system that fully vents and allows the user to decide when to clean and reuse the parts, or dispose of any parts economically. Additionally, current systems frequently leak and some require the purchase of difficult to assemble and use structures, including the expensive plastic bags, that are hard to apply and remove. Also, there just is no system that allows the user to use different colored and size venting tubes, to customize the feeding container, maintain a consistent flow rate, and to experience consistency in the usage and application of the vented nursing bottle, as to be subsequently described herein.
There are other related vented baby bottles, such as can be seen in the United States published application No. U.S. 9009/0200257, that shows a vented container with a check-valve to prevent its leakage. A nursing bottle with anti-air ingestion valve can be seen in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,503, that discloses a very large check-valve across the superior aspect of the container. Finally, a vented and double walled baby bottle, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,086, shows a double walled container with a check-valve system.
The current invention is designed to provide a venting system for a nursing bottle, using the least number of parts over anything shown in the art, incorporates no check-valve system, to attain an internal venting of the bottle structure, during consumption of its liquid and formula.
These are all examples of what prior art are known, and which are designed for venting of a nursing bottle or other container, but they are far more structurally complex of design, and obviously will have difficulty of cleaning, after usage, whereas, the concept and design of the current invention is to provide the least number of parts, to make up a venting structure, particularly within a nursing bottle or any other container, that can be very easily cleaned after usage, and prompt to reassemble, when prepared for reception of a formula, and used by the infant during feeding and consumption of its contents.